


You do not Need to see our Identification

by The Curator of The Sands (GrimRevolution)



Series: Voltron Whump Week 2017 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Reunions, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Pidge | Katie Holt-centric, Pidge!whump, Voltron Whump Week 2017, enough crying to drown a city
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 11:46:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11828091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrimRevolution/pseuds/The%20Curator%20of%20The%20Sands
Summary: She was looking for information so she went alone.She didn't come back that way.She almost didn't come back at all.





	You do not Need to see our Identification

It had been far too easy to sneak out of the castle with Green. There was no night in space, no day, but that didn't mean those in the large ship didn't have to sleep and while many of them often had insomnia ( _Shiro_ , generally) the week had been long enough that everyone had looked ready to pass out. 

Pidge snuck out using the hangar because, unfortunately, there was no windows to use as a cliché and her lion probably wouldn't have been able to fit through them anyway. The coordinates to a nearby planet and the Galra base on it beeped on the screen to her left, a dotted line marking the direction she needed to go flashed in red. 

There was information about the rebels and a prison full of them somewhere on the planet. Maybe... maybe she could find more information about Matt. About her father. Or even is they just knew more about where the rebels were and how to get in contact, they could make an allegiance between them and Voltron. 

She rubbed one hand across her face and tried to even out her breathing, but her heart was still pumping blood hard enough that she could feel it roaring in her ears and tingling in the tips of her fingers. 

The lion purred beneath her and Pidge patted the console. "Come on, girl," she said, "we gotta get back before everyone else wakes up."

Space didn't quite pass by trees in the mountains or corn fields or even the grey buildings of a city. It seemed to never move as Pidge got closer to her destination. A star was growing closer, though; one of the many red giants. It had thick arches of gas across the surface—flares that rose and fell in a constant, never ending cycle. 

It wasn't the star she was interested in, though—it was one of the twelve planets orbiting it. A grey and black rock called Ophiuc and its small moon named Serp. Water covered most of the surface—dark and deep according to her scanners, with numerous lifeforms that were just as big as her lion lurking in the depths. 

The life hadn't moved to land just yet, though, so the surface was rocky with a splattering of small forests. Pidge stealthed the lion before entering the atmosphere and kept a careful eye on her scanning equipment as she dropped low over one of the oceans. A shadow passed beneath her, going the other direction and she pulled back on the controls as Green created a 3d render.

Massive. Massive with lots of teeth and six flippers that propelled its serpentine body through the water. 

"Won't go swimming in there," Pidge muttered and the lion growled her agreement before flying onward. The horizon of the water was broken by mountains that seemed to grow as they flew closer and one of the mounds separated from the rest due to the large, curling spikes that could have belonged to a horned crown. 

Sections of it glowed purple, though, and that was all Pidge needed before scanning the base for life forms. 

Most of the people were under the surface, but without Lance's sonic scan, she could get nothing more than the life forms blinking on the top and second levels. And there were more than she had planned. This base was operated by more Galra and their prisoners than she had seen before—and that wasn't even counting the drones that probably swarmed the place. 

The sun was setting over the horizon and, when night came, she'd have better luck.

She just needed to cover the cerulean glowing parts of her suit. 

Pidge dug through the storage closet of her lion, finding unfinished projects made by her and the prior paladin, a couple of old books written in a language she couldn't read, and what looked like one of the old Jedi cloaks. 

_Perfect_ _._

It hung a bit low, going all the way down to her ankles, but she didn't trip or step on it when she walked, so the length was fine. The hood could have done her move favors by falling lower over her face, but it was fine. 

The sun was still setting and she straightened the fabric and stood with her hands clasped in front of her chest. "General Kenobi," She said, "Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire."

The lion rumbled beneath her and lifted the great metal head so the sunset lit up the interior of the cockpit with swirling blues, oranges, and pink. Beneath the light, the mountains were turned from grey to lavender, the rock casting thick, dark scars across the ground and the trees seemed to loom higher the farther their shadows reached.

_"I_ _regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack, and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to_ _Alderaan_ _has failed."_

Even when the sun had vanished behind the mountains the sky was still lit as the pink and blue melted together like bubblegum and cotton candy ice cream to create a soft purple.

_"I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it."_

Pidge exited her still cloaked lion as the sky grew darker and kept close to the sparse trees, using their shadows to cover her approach to the Galra compound. The cloak helped more than she had expected—the brown blending in well with the rest of the planet.

_"You must see this droid safely delivered to him on_ _Alderaan_ _."_

Each Galra station out in space was a closed system—it had to be otherwise they would run out of all air and water. Those that were on planets, however, could be open. Which meant they had  _vents_.

Vents a small paladin of Voltron could climb through.

_"_ _This is our most desperate hour."_

She found one with screws rusted from the constant humidity on the planet and used her bayard to cut through the metal and pull the grating off. 

_"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."_

oOo

Navigating the vents in a place that went down into the surface of a planet was probably the hardest part of getting inside—vents could go anywhere, split at any time, lead her to a dead end. Pidge was careful to keep her eyes on the makeshift map her scanners had been able to make for her, but even then it was slow going as she crawled, on hands and knees, through the air ducts. 

The cloak was streaming behind her, collecting all the dust it could and she wondered if the Galra even had people who did that for them or were they all soldiers? Could one of them also be a soldier and "designated ship duct cleaner"? Did they just use drones for that? Pidge shook her head and went back to focusing on the pathway to the control room. 

" _Focus_ ," Pidge murmured and found the grating that opened up to a tall room that was not unlike the one in Beta Traz. A few drones guarded the door and she—very carefully—undid the screws and caught the grating before it fell. She held onto it so it couldn't clang against the interior of the vent, and used the jetpack to fall slowly to the floor behind the makeshift desk and all its camera feeds. 

The images were holographic and she was able to watch the guards even as she put the grate gently on the floor. It only made a slight bumping sound, not enough to get their attention, and she activated her bayard with a buzz. She stuck close to the wall, moving around and keeping low until she was at the doorway and standing behind the droids.

Dispatching them was easy—it was the noise of her barayrd slicing through the metal that was the problem. If she was fast enough, there was barely any sound, but if there was something thick in the way—like an iron bar used as a spine, for instance, it could take more effort and, therefore, cause some  _slight_  screeching. 

She went for the neck for that reason—which was about six inches taller than her—and managed to decapitate both without tripping over her own feet or create enough noise to summon a battalion. The door didn't close though; there was no keypad nor a sign that she could do it from there.

Crap.

Which meant that it was done remotely.

Double crap.

She retreated back to the desk and pulled all the camera feeds of the hallway leading up to the command center u on the left monitor to keep an eye on them. As for the rest, she went digging through the logs and information.

It was a prison, not unlike Beta Traz, and a factory.

A work camp only underground. 

Well. That certainly wouldn't do.

Pidge began the download of the files and flipped through the camera feeds, watching the prisoners and the guards. It seemed to be five to one in the prisoners' favor if she wasn't counting the droids. 

And there was a lot of droids. At least twenty to thirty on each level. When the floor plans were finished downloading into her armor, Pidge pulled them out and tried to track the easiest route down to the cells but there wasn't one that didn't go through at least a squadron. It was times like this where she wondered if not putting the cloaking tech in her armor had really been the best idea.

But she hadn't and figuring out a way to get through the base was going to get messy. 

Okay, it'll be fine. She'll be fine. 

Pidge unplugged the download when it was done and made the screens the same as they had been before she had meddled with it, only making it so that they were playing the night's footage from before instead so she could at least travel without being spotted. 

Stepping over the broken guards, she headed down the hallway, keeping close to the walls and away from the cameras, just in case. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in her own abilities—she did—it was just that tech could be finicky and there could be a possibility of someone out there who was smarter than her and had different cameras sending images somewhere else. 

Which was what she would do if she was running a prison full of inmates that had friends who liked to break each other out.

Just saying. You know, in case she became an evil overlord.

Keeping track of the sentries and staying out of sight got her to the second level—but it was a third that the alarms went off. Which meant either one of two things; a prisoner escaped, or she had, at some point, been spotted. 

Pidge cursed and ducked into a corridor as droids passed, keeping low with the cloak carefully covering the glowing bits of her armor. Why didn't they have a night mode, anyway? If she was going to keep breaking into places the least she could do was learn how to turn it  _off_. 

It might be the death of them someday.

Running footsteps approached and she ducked further back into the shadows, but they weren't metallic and the person who stopped in front of her hiding place was wearing the poofy pants of the rebellion which made the calves and feet covered in grey boots look shocking skinny in comparison. 

 _He_  was the one.  _He_  set off the alarms.

 _Ugh_. 

Pidge pouted and went from 'fine, whatever' to 'oh  _shit_ ' when whoever it was decided that the little alcove was an excellent place to hide (which it was) and that they could use it (they  _couldn't_ ). She caught sight of the odd, grey armor that covered their torso not unlike the kind she was wearing and the odd brown collar around their neck before she saw the hair. 

Familiar messy, brown hair. 

That was just like  _hers_.

She was staring and didn't have time to move so the rebel ran into her, hip hitting her shoulder where she was ducked down sending them both crashing to the ground with a grunt. Her cloak tangled around his legs, his elbow dug into her sternum and getting untangled seemed to be too much of an effort that they both laid there for a second as the sentries rushed past. 

Pidge let out a low moan and rubbed at her stinging forehead before shoving at his shoulders to push him off. 

"Sorry," he whispered and her eyes snapped open as she remembered why she hadn't moved in the first place.

Her eyes flickered over to him, focusing on the brown of his hair, the same color of his eyes, the splattering of freckles across his nose that was identical to hers. 

"Matt?" She breathed.

He had been watching the opening to the corridor but, at the sound of his name, Matt's head snapped around and he stared at her and looked.  _Really_  looked. His eyes grew wider with each second until, finally, his mouth parted.

No sound came out the first couple of tries, but he swallowed reached out, fingers hesitating a hair's width from her cheek. 

" _Kaite_ _?_ " 

Her mouth trembled and suddenly her face scrunched up as if she was in pain. " _Matt!_ "

He dropped whatever he held and it clattered against the floor. She didn't care, though, and flung herself into his arms, burrowing her nose into the curve of his neck and wrapping her arms around his chest. The sobs came hard and fast, wrenching up through her chest in a violent motion that made her lungs ache. Tears dripped heavily onto his collar and she felt something warm drip down her own neck and, in her own shaking, didn't realize that he was shaking just as hard.

"Katie, Katie,  _Katie_ ," He gasped and she shook her head against his shoulder and clung to him harder. 

"Matt," she cried, voice choked and trying to say something else like 'I've been looking for you' and 'I've missed you so much' or even 'don't ever do that again' but she couldn't and ended up just repeating his name over and over again. 

He pulled back and cupped her face in his hands—fingerless so she felt his skin against hers and, if she concentrated, could imagine the heartbeat pulsing through his arteries. "Oh my  _god_ ," he ran his thumbs over her cheeks, brushing away her tears only for them to be replaced by more as she gave him a trembling smile. "Katie, I— _how?_ "

And then he pulled her to him again, buried his face into her shoulder, and  _sobbed_. Her nose was pressed into his hair and she gripped his back, fingers digging into his ribs as she tried to hold on so tight that he couldn't pull away even if he tried. 

The two of them laid like that until Pidge's foot was falling asleep but she still didn't move, her brother's sobs slowing as hers did until they were simply just holding on. Their chests rose and fell in unison, their arms wrapped around, legs still tangled from when they had fallen in the first place. 

Around them, the alarms continued to blare and both finally pulled back to wipe at their faces and Pidge couldn't stop smiling, her lips trembling still. "I wasn't," her voice was hoarse and she cleared it before trying again, "I wasn't even..."

"Expecting anything?" Matt took her hand and shot her a wide, brilliant smile that didn't quite look like it belonged with his reddened eyes. 

She wouldn't have him any other way. 

"Me neither," he said and tugged playfully at one of the bits of hair that was sticking out from her head. "Nice hair."

"Nice pajamas."

His laugh was like a bark and she couldn't stop smiling even though her cheeks hurt from doing so broadly for so long. Matt leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together, his eyes closing. "I missed you," he said. " _God_ , did I miss you."

"I missed you too," she murmured, "I missed you so  _much_."

Matt leaned back and ruffled her hair, "you shot yourself into  _space_ ," he said.

"I had to get you and dad back," Pidge said, because it was true, because she had spent the better part of a year looking, because she had changed herself to be something else for so long until she could only look in a mirror and just saw the face of her brother instead of her own. 

 _I_ _love you_ , was unspoken,  _I did so much to find you_.

Face softening, Matt smiled at her. "You're amazing," he said, "you're so..." His voice cracked and he tugged her forward again and into another long, tight hug. 

Feet passed by them one more time and they had to pull back after remembering where they were which...

Pidge elbowed him in the side and he pouted.

" _That's_  for setting off the alarms."

Rubbing the spot, Matt offered her a sheepish grin. "Well, you see,  _someone_  changed the camera feeds so when I switched it—"

"Are you  _serious_?"

He shrugged helplessly and she shoved at his shoulder. Matt only laughed even as she got up to her feet and followed behind her, picking his staff off the ground and peeking around the outside of the alcove with her. "What are you here for, anyway?"

"Information," Pidge stepped out into the hallway and shot her bayard at the camera, severing it from the wall and any other footage it would give the facility. "And to  _maybe_ cause a prison break."

"Same," he deadpanned and wrapped one arm around her shoulder to tug her closer and against his side. Most of the sentries had gone, probably down to the lower levels where the prisoners were. 

It made getting down easier, for sure, but they still kept an eye out. Some of the droids that were left were taken down just as easily; Matt having gone for the one on his side and Pidge for the one on hers. The wires sparked and lights died, but the Holts were already moving on. 

"Okay, so if we go down here then we'll reach the first level of prisoners," Pidge pulled up the maps of the compound and point out the path they would take.

Matt was leaning over her shoulder and frowned. "That's only one of four—we'll have to work our way up so we don't get locked out of the others."

"All the vents are cut off at each level, stopped by a van to circle the air through," Pidge pulled up the schematics and showed her brother. "We could stop the fan, but that sets off alarms."

Matt frowned. "What's that?" He pointed to something on the screen and Pidge squinted at it. 

"Looks like a trash chute but..." Zooming in, Pidge tried to click on it for more information and frowned when nothing came up. "That's weird."

" _That's_  our way down," Matt said, taking her hand and pulling her over to one of the numerous hallways. 

Pidge followed, letting him tug her around corners and through hallways like they were schoolkids, "wait, Matt," she tugged back at him and he stopped, raising an eyebrow and watching as she looked over the chute. "It goes  _up,_ which means that something must be making it go up—"

"And that we can't go down," Matt finished for her and rubbed a hand over his face. "Is there a way to shut it off?"

"I don't know," Pidge scowled, "the whole place is on lockdown and I can't—" She made a frustrated noise and almost jumped a foot in the air when something heavy landed on her shoulder. Blinking, her brown eyes turned up to stare at Matt.

He smiled at her. "Don't worry," his voice was soft, "we got this."

She grinned back at him, before turning her attention to the blueprints. "We'll have to find one of the openings first and see how they work," zooming out, Pidge mapped out their path. "Got it?"

"Got it."

oOo

Turned out, the whole system worked like a strange air lift system where magnets, air, and force was used to get everything up. It also meant that dropping a magnet on the others turned the entire system useless and allowed Pidge and Matt to climb down the shaft. It smelled—not that they weren't expecting it  _not_  to, but the thing about trash is that you never really expect it to smell as strongly as it did.

Plus, the fact that there was this dirt smell that went with it was not so unfamiliar, but still a slight surprise. 

Metal doors that had to be pushed in where on each of the floors and the chute was big enough for Matt and Pidge to stand side by side and not have to worry about touching, but when they got to the very bottom and where the last level of prisoners were, the siblings paused. 

"I don't think mom ever pictured us causing prison break outs before," Matt murmured as Pidge undid the screws. They would have to act fast when she was done—the door was large and who knew what would be on the other side? 

"I don't think mom imagined a lot of what happened," Pidge said softly, finishing the last screw and motioning for him to take the other side. With a heave, they pushed it outward and over, and it hit the ground with a crash that seemed to vibrate through the whole building. 

Pidge and Matt were out of the chute before the droids could even turn around, turning them to scrap metal between one second and the next. Footsteps rushed towards them and they piled up sparking corpses to take shelter behind them as another group thundered around the corner. They used the Galra weaponry to shoot anything that tried to come around and, when the numbers slowed, Matt took position over his sister as she dragged piece by precious piece of information out of one of the sentries.

 "Let's go!" She cried out when done and Matt threw the gun at the next droid that came around the corner before smacking it hard enough in the side of the head with his staff that it made an indentation. Pidge lead him through the winding hallways, using her bayard to slice through those that got in their way. Cell doors loomed on either side, eyes peering at them from behind the small, sliver of glass that worked as a window. "There's a control center—AH!'

A lucky shot hit her in the shoulder and, with the moment of the blast and where she was going Pidge was knocked off her feet and hit the ground with a grunt.

"Hey!" Matt snapped and turned on the drone with a whirl of his staff. The end glowed bright for a second and the robot was flung back with a  _crackle_  and  _snap_.

It didn't get back up again. 

Pidge was already up on her feet before it's eyes had dimmed and was removing the cloak from her body and dropped the fabric on the ground to roll her shoulders and sighed when they cracked. The armor was singed from where the gun had hit her, but there was no puncture or even a dent. 

"You okay?" Matt was still holding his staff at the ready.

"Yeah," most of the pain had come from hitting the ground and even that was already fading. "Come on, we still have to release the prisoners."

They kept working their way closer and closer to the area, leaving a trail of broken droids behind them. The door to the control room, however, was several inches thick and had a control panel that Pidge got to work on immediately. Very few of the sentries seemed to be left, or they were getting a bit smarter because they only came in spaced out waves. 

Matt stood with his back to his sister and kept them away as she plugged wires into the panel and started to type rapidly on the holographic keyboard that came out of her arm. The next squadron that came forward were led by a lizard-type of alien with an almost crocodilian mouth and thick forearms. Small horns, like studs, covered his head and seemed to go down the back of his neck, underneath the leather guard uniform. 

He pulled what looked like an eskirma stick from the holster on his back and purple energy burst out of the end like a lightsaber only it wasn't straight like a sword but more flexible—like a whip. 

Not to mention that he was easily twice the size of Matt.

"Katie?" He called back and gripped the staff tighter in his hands. 

"Almost!"

The whip cracked down on where his feet had been and Matt was moving, ducking under the purple weapon as he tried to find a way around the guard to take him down or at least disarm him. "Any day now!" He cried back to his sister and she hissed something that would have gotten a lecture back home from at least one parent if not both. 

Matt muttered something back that was equally unkind as the whip hit the wall over his head, cutting through the metal and leaving a scorch mark behind. 

"Got it!" Pidge cried and Matt ran for the opening door, sliding beneath it just as his sister rolled under with him. A couple button presses and then the door was shut again with the alien on the other side. "I don't know how long it'll hold, though," she said.

Giving her a thumbs up, Matt laid out like a starfish on the floor and panted as his heart tried to beat its way out of his chest. 

"Aww," Pidge cooed and patted his stomach, "Poor Mattie, always the distraction."

He gave her the bird and only got laughter in response as she typed away at the semi-circle desk. Something hit the door with a bang and Matt rolled on his side and groaned. "Five more minutes," he told the door. 

It groaned under some weight and he sighed like an exasperated parent. 

Pidge was flicking through the monitors, finding what she could and downloading everything as she went. There was a slim possibility that she could unlock the other sections of the prison from where she was but it would take time.

The door crunched and a dent appeared.

Time that she didn't have. 

Matt sat up and placed his staff across his crossed legs, eyes on the door as Pidge continued to type as fast as she could, opening up channels between each control center while breaking their security. It wasn't a fully closed system, not like Beta Traz, and she was grateful for that at least. 

The door groaned again.

"Katie?"

"Working!" She typed as fast as she could without making mistakes, her eyes flickering over each screen, taking in information with nothing more than a glance. The first level was being stubborn. Too stubborn, like someone was up there and combating every line of her code with their own. "Come on, come on," Pidge murmured and then the line turned green and she slammed her hand down on the panel that would open every door in the prison.

Unfortunately, it also meant the one that kept the guard away. The door couldn't open all the way with the large dent, but it was enough that allowed the guard to slither through, his dark pink eyes watching them with silted pupils, clawed feet scratching the floor and making a sound that had both humans grinding their teeth together. It was that weird type of feeling, like what happened when a cat, rubbing its head against the side of a computer or laptop, accidently brushes their teeth against it instead.

There was noise beyond the door; shouting and banging, the Galra weapons firing and the crunch of machinery.

"You two," the guard hissed, nostril slits flaring. 

Matt shifted into a defensive position, one end of his staff pointing at the guard's chest and Pidge lifted her bayard and stepped around the desk to stand beside her brother. 

"You've cost me much," the guard flicked his wrist and the whip cracked and hit the wall with enough force to slice through it and leave the metal sizzling. "It would be a pleasure killing you."

He lunged and the Holts stumbled over their own feet to get out of his way. Pidge slammed her bayard into the leather as he passed and a burst of electricity had the guard howling. "Go, go, go!" She shoved her brother towards the half open door and they took it at a sprint and slid under—Matt like a baseball player coming home and she on her knees and leaning back like some odd form of limbo.

A roar echoed across the walls behind them and they heard that whip slice through the door. The crash of it falling to the floor shook the ground but the Holts kept running. 

"Left!" Pidge cried and they turned together around a corner. 

A droid with a missing arm was on the other side and lifted its weapon only to be struck down by Matt's staff. Pidge guided them through the hallway to the stairs that went up and up and  _up_. Her legs were burning, he was panting, but they pushed out of the first of the prison floors and found destroyed robotic parts cluttering the hallway.

The prisoners were gone, but the noise of them fighting somewhere above echoed through the vents. Beneath them, there was the sound of talons on metal and the two Holts kept moving. Everyone they had released seemed to be having an easy time taking over their captors which meant they weren't paying attention to the Paladin and the Rebel.

That worked just fine for Pidge and Matt and they were running,  _sprinting_ , towards the open door and the rock planet with it's weird, oceanic creatures beyond. They were panting, sweat dripping from their foreheads, legs burning—

Something hot wrapped around Pidge's waist like one of those snap bracelets and the air was driven from her lungs as she was wrenched back and off her feet. Matt almost tripped over his own feet as he skidded while trying to turn around.

"KATIE!"

Pidge activated her bayard and swung at the purple energy, slicing through it. The bit that was wrapped around her waist disintegrated to nothing, but it had already burned through the black fabric of her Paladin armor and left thick, red ropes around her midsection that were already throbbing. She stumbled back to her feet and took in a deep breath that just made her stomach  _ache_

The whip cracked somewhere and she scrambled away only to find a cloak swaying in front of her. Matt had blocked the blow with his staff and grunted as the energy wrapped around the metal and snapped it in half. He threw the sparking half at the guard and the end hit him in the face earning them a snarl from a mouth that looked to be nothing but teeth. 

"Come on," Matt took her hand and tugged her back towards the entrance, "come on, Katie, we have to  _go_."

She was getting her breath back and her legs no longer felt like jelly, but Pidge didn't quite feel... alright. One knee went down and she almost crashed into Matt who caught her just before she hit him. 

"Hey, hey, Katie?" He pulled one of her arms over his shoulder and she shuddered as it sent fire up her back. "Katie, what's wrong?" Matt bared his teeth at the guard. "What did you  _do_?"

"Did you think we could have so many prisoners," the guard hissed, "and not have a way to deal with them?" That crocodilian face spit in a smile. "I will enjoy bringing your head back to the emperor, Paladin."

Pidge grinned at him, looking too cheerful for someone who couldn't quite stand straight. "You're not the only one that's tried."

"No," he said and threw his arm out. The whip cracked and flung towards the Holts. 

Matt dropped them low, supporting Pidge with an arm wrapped almost around her torso so she didn't go tumbling to the ground. 

"I will be the one to  _succeed_."

She shouldn't have come alone. Matt was keeping her up on her feet but he was slowed by her weight. The Castle was too far for her comms so she couldn't call for help. It was just her and her brother. Pidge gripped her bayard and the whip came too close. It took concentration to move her limbs, but that was fine.

 The war had taught her to multitask. 

Dropping out of Matt's hold, she stumbled off to the side and lifted her weapon so the green illuminated her features. "You have to get the head if you want it."

Snarling, the guard lunged for her and Pidge activated the grappling mode on her bayard, pulled the bladed top away and wrapped the energy around the guard's arm as he came for her. Then she dropped and while Pidge wasn't exactly heavy, the sudden weight was enough to send the alien crashing forward. 

He went muzzle first into the rock and Pidge rolled away, scrambling back to her feet as grabbed her arm and pulled her away. "You've gotta have a ship somewhere, right?"

The lion, right, the lion. It was--"That way," she pointed to the beach and Matt pulled her along, keeping her up even as she stumbled. 

Everything around her was blending together—the ground, the sky, the trees. She couldn't tell where her lion was, she couldn't even see the  _stars_. "M-Matt—"

"I got you," He said, hoisting her up, "I got you, Katie—"

Something hit them. Something large and snarling and Pidge felt something rip through her. She couldn't breathe and gasped instead as something  _moved_  inside of her, sliding out of her abdomen and sending her crashing with a breathless gasp to the ground.

"KATIE!"

Purple was above her but there was something else. 

Something yellow and green and white that opened its mouth and  _roared._

That was the last thing she remembered.

Matt watched his sister fall, the guard with his claws buried in her side, blood spilling out on the rock and the scream that rose up through his body came from the very pits of his rage. Something echoed it. Something larger than he was and Matt felt the air heat and rise up, wind rising around him as something landed, heavily, upon the rock. 

The guard looked up and was swiped away, a massive metal paw knocking him not only across the ground, but also out of sight. 

It was a lion. A giant robotic lion.

And it was staring at him. 

Katie was between its feet, her eyes barely open, the light glimmering off what was exposed. Matt ignored the lion and ripped the large collar part of his outfit off, bundled it up as much as he could, and pressed it against her side. She reached out and dragged her fingers over his forearm, whimpering and opening her mouth to say something, but there was just gasps. 

The lion rumbled and stepped back before lowering its head. There was a ramp. A ramp up into the beast.

Matt bundled his sister close and ran up it, not caring about the blood soaking through his clothing or the fact that it was dripping down his hand. There was a seat, a wide one, that he sat down in and screens flared to life. But the lion moved on its own, launching itself with a roar into the air. He could keep the pressure on without being worried about flying and the machine seemed to know where it was going anyway.

His sister whimpered as he pushed a little too hard and Matt pressed their foreheads together. "I'm sorry," he told her, " I'm sorry Katie, I'm sorry,  _I'm sorry_ —"

Her breathing was slowing and Matt's face twisted in agony. Their bangs blended together as he turned his face but it was his tears that dripped down onto her freckles. It was his sobs that echoed in the quiet cockpit. Something beeped, but he didn't bother turning his face to look at it, he just held on to Katie as her breaths became soft puffs against his cheek. 

The lion rumbled and Matt forced himself to look out. They were entering a hangar of a ship, the walls rounded around them and the Lion kept moving, kept flying forward until it had landed on a platform where there were other robotic cats, each a different color, and each staring into the cockpit with glowing, yellow eyes. 

Matt was already standing as the head lowered and managed to stumble, but not fall, out onto the floor. The lion he exited lifted its head up and roared, the sound vibrating almost violently through the rest of the ship. Not knowing where to go, the young man laid his sister down on the floor and pressed down against her wound. 

"I don't know where we are," he told her, "your big robot cat brought us here but you'll be okay, Katie," He brushed her hair away from her face and wiped his tears from her cheeks. "You'll be okay, you just gotta keep fighting, okay? Keep fighting for me, Katie."

The lion roared again and Matt was shaking. The fabric was almost soaked through and he could smell the copper.  "Help!" He screamed at the door and, hopefully, the people beyond. "Help! Please! Somebody help us!" Each word was loud enough that it ripped through his throat and caused physical pain. 

He didn't care. 

"SOMEBODY!  _ANYBODY_! HELP!" He turned away from the door and pressed his forehead back against his sister. "Hold on," Matt whispered hoarsely to her. "Hold on, please." Another sob wracked his body to the core. " _P_ _lease._ "

The door finally opened and two people entered at a sprint. One in a green opened vest wearing a yellow shirt underneath it and the other in a black shirt and a red, cropped jacket. 

"Hunk, take Pidge," the one in red said and Matt almost fought as Katie was lifted up and away from him but then an arm was pulling him up to his feet and the rebel almost shoved past the other kid to follow his sister. "Whoa," A hand pressed against his chest and he focused on the dark, almost purple eyes of the guy stopping him. 

They widened in recognition. "You're Matt."

 _And you're in my way,_  he almost wanted to say, but didn't. Instead, Matt managed to shoulder he was past and follow the one carrying his sister. Hunk? Wasn't it? "Hey,  _hey_ ," he called, scrambling to catch up. "Where are you taking her?"

"Healing pods," Hunk said and Matt followed without any more questions, the one in red close behind. 

Their small group ran into a dark-skinned woman with long, pointed ears and white hair that fell down past her hips. She looked over each of them in a split second, took Katie from Hunk's arms, and  _ran_. She was faster than any human Matt had ever seen—even some aliens too—but before he could follow, Hunk and his friend where pushing him down a different corridor. 

"Wait, wait," Matt shoved back, "Katie,  _Katie_ —"

"Allura's taking her to get changed so she can go into the healing pods," Hunk was saying, "you have to change, though, you're... you're covered in—"

"Don't care," Matt snarled, "don't care, she's my  _sister_ —"

The red one was stronger than he looked and managed to keep Matt from bolting by. "Hey," he said and lifted his hands up in the customary earth  _'I'm unarmed please don't hurt me_ ' gesture. "You'll see her," he promised, "you just have to change first." His voice was getting tighter and there was something else boiling up. 

Frustration.

Anger.

Matt bared his teeth. 

And then, he watched the kid in the red jacket close his eyes and take a deep breath. 

"My name's Keith, Hunk and I are members of Voltron, just like your sister," His voice was still hard, but Matt was listening now. "We'll do everything we can to help her, but you need to help us heal you too."

"I'm fine."

Keith snorted. "Sure," he said, "but, just in case, you have to change so you can be next to your sister while she heals. Got it?"

Matt narrowed his eyes and huffed, "fine," he said. "Fine, but you'll take me to her?"

"She'll find you herself if we don't," Hunk muttered under his breath and that was the clincher right there.

"Alright," Matt said. "Lead on."

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of love for Holt Twins so if you feel that it's close to that I would apologize but I'm not really sorry.
> 
> ALSO THIS IS SO LONG AND IT MADE ME A DAY BEHIND


End file.
